PDT and PD of Human Glioblastoma with 5-ALA/PpIX and n-GalLuPc

Abstract

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and severe type of brain tumor. Surgery and subsequent radiotherapy and chemotherapy do not lead to sufficient results in the treatment of this type of malignancy, mostly due to its specific morphology. Only about 6% of the patients of advanced age survive 5 years after being diagnosed with GBM. Therefore, scientists are working on alternative therapies that would lead to more effective and long-term treatment of glioblastoma. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photodiagnostics (PD) are such unconventional methods for treating and diagnosing malignant tumors. During our work, more than 20 experiments were carried out with stem cells cultivated from human glioblastoma tumors. We used two types of photosensitizers – delta-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) as a precursor of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) and non-peripherally galactosylated lutetium phthalocyanine (n-GalLuPc). After the irradiation supernatant samples of photosensitizer-treated cell lines were used for evaluation of photosensitizers’ accumulation in the cell lines investigated. The emitting spectra is correlated with the total induced cell death in the treated cells. After considering the overall effectiveness of the two photosensitizers, n-GalLuPc showed higher efficiency. These in vitro results prompted the future investigation of the phthalocyanine for in vivo application in GBM treatments.